Washington, DC, USA, 2018-Jun-13 — /EPR Internet News/ — The 1990’s saw an internet boom where anything that had a “dot com” at the end was golden. Soon enough though, people began to wake up and realize that unless the “dot coms” became easy to use and universally applicable, all those fever dreams of internet enthusiasts would forever remain just that – dreams. Eventually, email communication matured, America Online begat many long-distance romances (and even a famous rom-com), and MySpace became a worldwide phenomenon.

Now, in 2018, we are finding ourselves in the midst of a similar era – complete with blazing-fast growth and unprecedented opportunities. And once more, the blockchain enthusiasts’ dreams are crashing against real-world usability and adaptability challenges.

And that’s exactly why the newly-announced partnership between Cairo-based RedCab and Washington DC-bredWishKnish stands to bring decentralized commerce another step (or leap) closer to full retailization, putting a friendly, human face on a set of often-complicated technologies and making them accessible to… well, literally anyone.

Whether it’s a couple on a romantic date searching for a cab, or a grandmother with a bad back looking for someone to deliver her groceries and medicine, or even a tourist hoping to use their home currency to make a local purchase, the process needs to be quick, simple, and coupled with a coin-agnostic settlement solution to match.

“In the current climate of technology, sellers and customers alike, they want efficiency”, shares Alisa Gus, CEO of WishKnish Corp. “They want to be able to transact seamlessly and transparently with transactions being approved in a timely fashion – and with fees that don’t hinder the use of crypto currencies. ​T​hat’s why our partnership with Red Cab makes so much sense – we both seek to bring blockchain to the everyday consumer who wants a timely and safe fulfillment of their order.”

The latest statistics shows a drastic reduction in patience for customers expecting deliveries of any goods and services ordered online, and while the blockchain-powered businesses seek specifically to reduce the inefficiencies inherent in legacy infrastructures, the way to onboard customers and get them comfortable with a new paradigm is a rarely-explored concept.

“We are bringing the use of blockchain to the masses, so all can participate. WishKnish is a platform to deploy and scale your business rapidly across the US and globally”, explains WishKnish COO, Michael Kapoor. “Simply put, we make it easy.”

Washington, DC, USA, 2018-Jan-15 — /EPR INTERNET NEWS/ — The year 2017 was known in the world of cryptocurrency-based crowdfunding as the age of the Wild West — infamous for its massive, oft-unwarranted treasure chests being entrusted to companies barely out of the whitepaper stage during their TGEs — Token Generation Events also known as Initial Coin Offerings, or ICOs — offset by regulatory uncertainty, frequent multi-million-dollar scams, and sometimes even wholesale freeze-outs of crypto assets in several countries previously friendly to practice.

The year 2018, on the other hand, is expected to issue in a certain sense of clarity and solidity to the markets, populated with ambitious projects at last aware of their own strengths and weakness, and carried on the shoulders of teams capable of actually bringing their lofty visions to life.

WishKnish (https://wishknish.com), a Washington, DC-based startup providing turnkey, decentralized, gamified marketplaces to businesses, social causes, and communities — along with tailored BaaS (Blockchain As A Service) solutions to enterprise clients — aims to be one of these latter entrants.

By bringing in Mr. Mohammed Ebrahim Al Fardan as the Executive Vice President of the MENA and APJ region, the group has now expanded its core team to broadcast its messaging far beyond existing marketing frontiers.

“It is not often that such a fortuitous meeting of the minds happens so seamlessly over thousands of miles,” says Alisa Gus, CEO of WishKnish, “but when an opportunity presents itself, it is up to an exec worth his — or her — salt to answer. Really, Mr. Al Fardan’s experience and connections, and our shared goals for the region and the role of WishKnish’s Blockchain-as-a-Service arm in making them happen, will undoubtedly make this one of the most strategic hires any company can hope to make, especially as it closes in on its own token generation event.”

A 2014 Entrepreneur of the Gulf region recipient, Mr. Al Fardan is the mastermind behind the concept, technical study and master plan for the MENA ICT hub city, a first and only fully integrated smart city in the world as stated by industry experts, and for many years one of the driving forces for the region’s Oil & Gas, Real Estate, Luxury Goods, Investment, Travel & Tourism, and Pharmaceutical industries.

“When you are a VC,” shares Michael Kapoor, the WishKnish’s Chief Operations Officer, and formerly a managing partner of San Francisco’s Propeller Venture Capital, “you’ve got your pick of interesting projects. But occasionally, a project comes along that reminds you of why you started out as an entrepreneur yourself back in the day, and makes you want to get your hands dirty and make this remarkable business take shape. I imagine that’s how Mr. Al Fardan has come to feel, too, and I really can’t be happier to have him on the team.”

Long excited to bring in the vision, power, and security of blockchain technology to the MENA business and government structures, revitilizing and decentralizing its most vital systems, Mr. Al Fardan has this to say about his decision to join the advisory board of WishKnish:

“I am proud and excited to join a team of world experts in Blockchain technologies at WishKnish,” Mr. Al Fardan remarks “I found the idea behind the company so unique and the founders are top class professionals. Such a team with such experiences will no doubt disrupt the industry providing clients globally with great utilization of Blockchain. Having clients talking to us from regions like Middle East & Asia Pacific at this stage makes us more committed and accountable to deliver on their expectations and exceeding them.”

The excitement of new possibilities is felt across all levels of the project’s management team:

“The advent of a truly global economy has come to be possible thanks to blockchain decentralization. We cannot allow ourselves to focus only on the parts of the world familiar to us if we want to make an impact on this exciting space. But doing so without an expert local member of the team is something I would not be prepared to tackle at any stage of the company’s lifecycle,” says Eugene Teplitsky, WishKnish CTO and Alisa’s long-term partner in multiple projects. “That Mr. Al Fardan has agreed to join us while we’re still young is, I think, both a testament to his forward thinking on where the technology is heading in the next decade — as well as to his confidence in WishKnish’s ability to deliver on our now shared vision. We can’t wait to see what 2018 brings to all of us in these next few months!”

Washington, DC, USA, 2018-Jan-08 — /EPR INTERNET NEWS/ — What does the average retail user think about blockchain technology? A few words that frequently come up are: confusing, abstract, scary, complicated, overwhelming. Not exactly wide adoption territory. But one innovative company hopes to change that.

Any great technological revolution goes through stages, each with its own unique challenges. Blockchain technology is still in its infancy, and yet it’s already rearing to change the world. However, before it can “grow up”, it has to be accepted by the harshest audience of all: the average retail consumer.

So, how does one make the average consumer fully understand blockchain tech? If you ask Alisa Gus, CEO of WishKnish (https://wishknish.com) – you don’t.

“When you get into your car in the morning, do you need to understand the principles of internal combustion in order to get your engine revved up? I don’t think so,” Alisa says. “Neither do you need to understand how SSL encryption works in order to make a secure e-commerce purchase. Any great technology has to fit transparently into your routine so that you use it successfully without thinking. That is what needs to happen to blockchain tech before it can be fully embraced.”

WishKnish, the social, gamified marketplace platform startup based out of the Washington, DC area, has been making great strides in bringing much-needed usability improvements to the often complicated process of obtaining and transacting in cryptocurrencies – virtual tokens encrypted using a secret hash and decentralized across multiple distributed “ledgers”.

Last month WishKnish announced a key partnership with UK biometric security firm BioSSL to replace the convoluted and oft-problematic “private key” used to unlock cryptocurrency wallets, with army-grade biometric security measures and other layers of authentication.

Michael Kapoor, former managing partner at Propeller Venture Capital and newly minted COO of WishKnish is no stranger to untangling the usability struggles commonly encountered in this nascent space. “If you’ve ever lost your private key, your tokens are as good as gone,” Mr. Kapoor says. “This level of risk is simply unacceptable for the average user. This is just one example of the evolutionary challenges we are addressing with the WishKnish platform.”

Now, the ambitious team is staring off 2018 by partnering with InstantAccess.io, a usability startup based out of Berlin, Germany that helps users save time filling out form online by maintaining their own private, secure repository that can be easy tapped into with a single click. Previously stored form fields can be updated across the entire network, making changes easy.

“It’s as simple as logging in via Facebook or Twitter – just click the icon, authenticate, and the necessary data will automatically be sent to the app,” explains Eugene Teplitsky, CTO of WishKnish and Alisa’s partner. “Since our goal is to accommodate a wide range of storefront communities, we anticipate a broad need for information that users could potentially exchange with them, from the mundane – like shoe size or dietary preference – to more complex, harder-to-remember details – like blockchain wallet addresses. InstantAccess.io will save users a ton of time, and shave off another layer of usability barriers between blockchain technology and full adoption among retail users.”

“We are super excited about the partnership with WishKnish as we believe blockchain technology is becoming widely adopted by everyday users”, says Rick Chen, director at InstantAccess.io. “Our aim is simple, we want the InstantAccess app to save users time, make their life easier, especially in adopting new and exciting technologies like blockchain.”

The future for retailization of user-facing blockchain marketplaces has never been brighter.

About WishKnish Corp.
WishKnish (https://wishknish.com) offers businesses, affiliates, and non-profits a decentralized marketplace platform for launching gamified, socially-engaged storefront communities equipped with the tools to turn regular users into super-fans and evangelizers while streamlining coin-agnostic e-commerce and fulfillment, as well as offering advanced blockchain-as-a-service tools to meet enterprise clients’ needs.

About InstantAccess.io
InstantAccess is an app that saves all kinds of user information/preferences securely and privately. Users can then re-use this information online and offline with just one click. From emails to shoe sizes to blockchain wallet addresses, InstantAccess makes it easier to access services.